Monday, 28 December 2015

Okay so here's my next challenge card for Retro Sketches #195. This is another simple card that didn't take long at all to make. I thought the striped paper in the Birthday Bouquet DSP lent itself perfectly to the background of the sketch.

Once again I used a Honeycomb Embellishment that is designed to go with the Honeycomb Happiness stamp set. I didn't need to colour this one - there are three colours Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron and White. Of course Stampin' Up!® have thought of everything and the back of the embellishment is sticky, just peel off the backing!

The house is clean and I've managed to make this card but now it's time to prepare dinner! ﻿

I wonder how many challenge blogs there are out there? I've got 12 on my list - I probably shouldn't go looking for any more otherwise nothing will get done around here! See you again soon - Angela x﻿

Yay for Christmas holidays! I'm still in my gym gear, one daughter is in her pyjamas and the other daughter hasn't moved off the couch all day - her bedroom is in serious need of tidying but it's not on her list of priorities - I guess the next thing she asks from me won't be on mine!

As a lot of the Challenge Blogs are on holiday and are giving extra time to complete the challenge I thought I would play along so first up was the Mojo Monday one. Once again I was drawn to the Number of Years stamp set and the Birthday Bouquet DSP. It is definitely an all time favourite!

The Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper is also a hit!

I love the layout of this sketch - my card seemed to come together without too much trouble!

I used Crystal Effects on the numbers to raise them up and make them shiny.

I'm hoping my daughter gets invited to lots of 13th birthday parties as this is about the third one I've made!

Right I'm off to make my next card - hope you get to have some free time to play these hols - Angela x

Saturday, 26 December 2015

This challenge is 'Case the Designer' and Bibi Cameron has made a gorgeous card to CASE this week. The other Design Team creations are gorgeous too - lots of inspiration - check them out!

Here's my card:

Here are the ideas I was inspired by -

Theme - Shaker Card or Waterwash Background.

Layout - Portrait style with circle and sentiment in the centre

Colours - Blues with Whisper White and Gold

This Gold Metallic Thread is definitely one of my favourite things, I think just about every card I make these days has this on it somewhere! The sun stamp is from the Hello (Sale-A-Bration) stamp set.

The My Friend is also from the Hello (Sale-A-Bration) stamp set and the gold Hello is from the Greetings Thinlits Dies. The sequins are the perfect colour and are from the Hello December 2015 Project Life Accessory Pack.

The waterwash background was painted with Pool Party ink - it was my first time painting for a long time!

I hope you had a happy Christmas Day yesterday and are enjoying a relaxing day today! I've managed a trip to two extremely busy shopping malls (my daughters were keen to spend their Christmas money), some gardening and then time in my craft room to make this card - sounds busy doesn't it! Well there's always tomorrow ....

Tuesday, 22 December 2015

Today I've made a male birthday card using some fabulous new products available in the
Occasions Catalogue from January 5th, 2016.

These cool planes are from the Sky Is the Limit stamp set in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue and are yours free when you spend $110 (before shipping and handling). This particular set is a Limited-Time product and only available through to 15 February 2016.

I used two different DSP's (designer series paper). The topographical type paper is from the NEW Going Places DSP Stack in the Occasions Catalogue 2016 and the Smoky Slate one is from another Limited Time! Perfectly Artistic Designer Series Paper in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue. I'm often a bit stuck on making male cards but these products make it soooooo easy.

It won't be long now till the Occasions and Sale-A-Bration catalogues go live on Tuesday 5 January 2016. It is full of lots of fabulous products so if you'd like a copy please send me a message and I'll pop them in the post.

Every Christmas I like to give my beauty therapy clients a little thank you gift and I try to incorporate my Stampin' Up products in the gift. Last year I made everyone Christmas tags. This year I made Ginger Truffles which I put in cellophane bags and popped in these cute gift bags made from the Gift Bag Punch Board.

The Gift Bag Punch Board is an amazing tool and makes it super simple to create gift bags in varying sizes. All you have to do is punch, score, and adhere.

Friday, 18 December 2015

This time next week it will be Christmas here in the South Pacific! I'm hoping for a warm sunny day so we can spend most of it outside - we had hail here last Sunday and it looked like snow!

I decided to try the Freshly Made Sketches challenge this week and of course I couldn't go past the Birthday Bouquet DSP although this time I used the Party with Cake stamp set!

In the information on their blog it reads "the twist is to keep your project clean-lined and fresh" - I'm hoping this card meets the criteria and I think this DSP definitely fits that description.

The Mint Macaron Twine is from the Baker's Twine Combo Pack - I split the two-tone Basic Black/Mint Macaron Twine - there is also Basic Black/Melon Mambo in the Pack. It's great as it means you have five twine options from the one pack.

I've also used Crystal Effects on the It's Your Day just to give it a bit of oomph. I think I might make a few more of these for my stash as once I came up with my design it was quick and easy to put together.

Anyways I had better go and get on with the day - it's 7.30 here and it's my youngest daughter's last day at primary before she heads to High School next year. Makes me feel a little tearful thinking about it!

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

I was so keen to use this gorgeous set that I decided to make a card for my daughter's 13th birthday in March 2016!﻿

I love it when you make a card and all the elements just seem to come together - it does help having a challenge - a bit of direction always help! There'll be a few 13th birthday parties coming up so I think I'll make a few of these in anticipation.

I was so excited to be making a card for the GDP with my new goodies that arrived on Tuesday. The upcoming Occasions Catalogue is jammed packed with the most gorgeous products and the Sale-a-Bration is too!

So here's a sneak peek of the Birthday Bouquet DSP and a couple of the stamps from the Birthday Blooms stamp set.

These colours are so me - so look out there'll be lots more ...

The designers at GDP have made some beautiful examples of this layout - lots of fabulous inspiration so remember to head over there to take a look.

If you'd like copies of the latest catalogues let me know and I'll pop them out in the post.

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

December is here at last so it's time to put up the Christmas tree and get the party started! But in the meantime I have a couple of dear friends having birthdays so I made identical cards for them - they'll never know! They both love cats so I thought this Go Wild Designer Series Paper would be perfect.

It is a good idea to make a few of the same card as all your product is out and measuring is easy. And it's nice to have a stash of cards for those caught short moments!

One of my favourite products at the moment is the "Fine-Tip Glue Pen". It made gluing the hello so easy and best of all there was no mess!